THE RUDOLF REPORT

GERMAR RUDOLF · THE RUDOLF REPORTprisons, emigration ships, caused by crop failures and price increases,thus also known as starvation, hospital, prison, ship or war typhus. Typhusis endemic in Russia, the Balkans, northern Africa, Asia Minor,and Mexico. According to Tarrassevich, 25-30 million people sufferedfrom epidemic typhus in Russia in 1918-1921, which amounts to 20-23%of the population. […]Successful control and prevention of epidemic typhus consists of enforcingall measures available to destroy the body louse.”The experiences of German physicians during WWII were no different.101,102 The topic of epidemics can be found in countless publications.Practical experiments were also conducted which increased theknowledge about fighting the causes of this disease.Professor Dr. F. Konrich was completely justified in stating, in hispublication “About sanitation facilities of German POW camps” 103 thatepidemics such as those in question “[…] had long been extinct here[in Germany].” However, it also becomes quite understandable why allof the offices and institutions involved over-reacted when epidemictyphus broke out in the Auschwitz concentration camp in early July1942. 104 The outbreak was traced to the civilian laborers brought in towork in the camp, rather than to inmates deported to Auschwitz. Also,due to drastic measures taken to isolate and eradicate this epidemic, itsspreading to the camp’s nearby civilian population could be prevented.5.2.2. Epidemic Control with Zyklon BOne of the most efficient methods to fight lice and thereby to containand eliminate typhus—but also to kill other vermin like grain beetles,bugs, cockroaches, termites, mice, rats and many more—is theirpoisoning with highly volatile hydrogen cyanide.Liquid hydrogen cyanide has a short shelf life and is extremelydangerous with incorrect handling. At the end of the First World War,hydrogen cyanide was introduced onto the market in an easier to han-101 R. Wohlrab, “Flecktyphusbekämpfung im Generalgouvernement”, Münchner MedizinischeWochenschrift, 89(22) (1942), pp. 483-488.102 W. Hagen, “Krieg, Hunger und Pestilenz in Warschau 1939-1943”, Gesundheitswesen undDesinfektion, 65(8) (1973), pp. 115-127; ibid., 65(9) (1973), pp. 129-143.103 Friedrich Konrich, “Über die Sanierungsanstalten der deutschen Kriegsgefangenenlager”,Gesundheits-Ingenieur, July 19, 1941, pp. 399-404.104 Cf. Wilhelm Stromberger, “Was war die ‘Sonderbehandlung’ in Auschwitz?”, Deutschland inGeschichte und Gegenwart, 44(2) (1996), pp. 24f. (online:www.vho.org/D/DGG/Strom44_2.html).60